Judges for the 15th Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction announced

Lord Martin Rees to chair the Prize.

The judges for the 15th annual Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction have been announced. Chaired by Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, the panel includes Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti, Professor of Classics Mary Beard, author and editor James McConnachie and Professor of Contemporary British History and former journalist Peter Hennessy.

Rees who calls this his “dream team” has said: “I'm delighted and honoured to be chairing such a distinguished panel in the year of the fifteenth anniversary of the UK’s premier non-fiction prize.”

The panel will produce a shortlist in October and announce the winner of the £20,000 award on 4th November.

Won by Into the Silence by Wade Davis last year, the prize has previously been awarded to among others Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro and Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

Deadline for the competition is 28 June 2013. Publishers may submit up to three books with publication dates between 10 November 2012 and 31 December 2013. More information can be found here.